


Just a Little Taste

by SherlockDreadsNaught



Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: Case Fic, Fake Vampires, Gen, Halloween, New York City, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-14
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-21 02:42:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2451719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockDreadsNaught/pseuds/SherlockDreadsNaught
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wannabe vampires dare to cross Henry Morgan's path!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Wolf at the Door

The call came in just minutes after 8:00 AM, shortly after Lucas Wahl entered the morgue and found that it had been vandalised.  At first Henry thought he was pulling some sort of prank until Nick, one of the lab techs grabbed the phone and started to add to the description of the damage. Gurneys overturned, equipment strewn all over, bottles and flasks with preparations had been thrown at the walls, and several of the chilled lockers had been left open, some with the bodies rolled out and uncovered.  The refridgeration unit they used to keep various samples in had been totally emptied and also knocked over. Even the staff's refridgerator in their small private alcove had been ransacked.

By the time Henry rushed to the scene, Detectives Jo Martinez and Mike Hanson were already there, along with several police photographers who were documeting the mayhem.  Lucas ran out to greet Henry, babbling at him about the chaos, the mess, and security retrieving their video.  When he strode into the room, Henry grimaced, as much a reaction to the mess as to the faintly unpleasant smell of spilled chemicals.  Already he was plotting how they'd get the mess cleaned up, but he also knew there were some questions and details to attend to first.

"Ah, Dr. Morgan!" Hanson greeted him rather loudly. "I'd say good morning but, we got a mess on our hands, in more ways than one!"

"Good morning, detectives," Henry responded rather formally. "A mess is a polite way of saying it. No doubt you'll want us to try to determine what was taken, and if nothng was taken, to try to surmise what they may have been looking for."

 "That would be an excellent start, Henry," Jo glanced around. "The photographers are trying to chronicle everything.."

"Right, but we're the ones who will have to do an inventory. Do you mind if Lucas and I start with the bodies? Out of respect."

"No, of course, we understand!"  Jo fell in step beside him as he carefully made his way to his office to hang up his coat and scarf and get his lab gear on. "Does something like this happen very often?"

"Something like what? Trashing a morgue?" He pursed his lips momentarily. "I should say not."

"What would someone break in for then?"

"Maybe we have a necropheliac on our hands."

"That is so disgusting, Henry!"

"Detective, I've lived in New York City long enough to know you cannot discredit anything, no matter how odd or gruesome. A city this size allows for alot of oddities and thrill seekers to blend in, yet they can find exactly what they are looking for."  As if to emphasize his words, he snapped the cuffs of his blue nitrile gloves, excused himself, and headed back out into the chaos.

"OK, Doc, I've done a cursory exam on the 3 bodies that were left....ummm...out here, and I do not see any marks on them."  Lucas met him halfway across the room, gesturing towards the bank of coolers. "And interestingly enough, they are still quite...chilled!"

"Let's take some readings..."

"Already did...no more than three degrees above storage levels."

Henry did some quick calculations in his head as he stared at the bodies whech Lucas had at least covered again.  "Given that we set the room at a crisp 55 degrees at night, those bodies have only been out for an hour or so. Security is getting us their video?"

"Yeah, that was the first thing they said to me when I reported this."

"Whoever did this was awfully bold then."

"Yeah bold...or really desperate!"

Jo picked her way over to them, her cell phone in her hand. "You need to take this call, Henry. It seems Staten Island was also broken into."

He frowned as he accepted the phone. "Yes, Drew?  I know, we have quite a mess here, it's going to take all day....what?  Are you sure? No, I haven't checked yet, they left three bodies out.....no, no marks, cuts, incisions, or punctures.  Check the neck?? No, Lucas didn't find anything but we'll double-check. Yes, thanks." Handing the phone back to Jo, Henry sighed. "Lucas, get Nick to assist you here, I need to check the cooler. Staten Island had some bags of blood products stolen, and one was cut into and half the contents are gone."

"Oh cool! Well, not really but...Oh my God, Doc, do you know what day it is?"

"Yes, it's October 25th..."

"Yeah, less than a week until Halloween!"


	2. Just To Scare You And Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get a bit sticky as the day rolls on and our intrepid team tries to figure out...is this a Halloween prank?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoying co writing the fan fic for Forever. Thanks for reading. Scarf Power!!!

Henry sighed and resisted an urge to roll his eyes. Personally, he hated the eye roll towards the heavens but this just might mandate it. Lucas and Nick were standing side by side, the latter staring at Henry with some sort of admiration or maybe, Henry thought, he just had gas.

"Everybody thinks Halloween is a pagan ritual, complete with ghosts and ghouls and druids and witches. Nothing could be further from the truth. The origins of Halloween are, in fact, very Christian and rather American. Halloween falls on October 31 because of a pope, and its observances are the result of medieval Catholic piety." Henry took a breath to go on but Jo interrupted him.

"Henry. Please."

"Oh, sorry." Henry felt his neck get warm and knew he was blushing a bit. It never helped when he was gently guided in the right direction by Jo and even her presence had him feeling a bit like he was under the microscope. "Well then. let's look at these bodies in hopes we might find something... oh yes indeed. Drew said one of the bodies from the Staten Island office was...poked...so let's see if we can get the same results. Lucas? You first. Examine this to see if you can find anything. Anything...like this...I don't doubt that it isn't similar to the marks made on the corpse in the Staten Island office."

"What?" Lucas bent down and peered in the direction that Henry's finger was pointing. Just under the ear, on the left side of the corpse's neck, were 2 tiny pin pricks depressing the skin. Lucas drew back and hissed. "Wow! That's...creepy!"

"I know what you're thinking, Lucas." Henry drew himself up and bent over the body himself. "I would imagine this is the only one of the bodies that actually has this mark on it, plus some residual blood around the wound. And do you know why?" Henry paused and looked up directly at Nick, who was trying to hide behind Lucas and not succeeding. "Nicholas? It IS Nicholas, I take it? Nick as an abbreviation for your full name?"

"Yes, Dr. Morgan." Nick, nee Nicholas, tentatively walked towards the body and bent down, looking intently at the puncture marks. He straightened up and nodded to himself. "Um, because this body was the most recent and if the other bodies were...attacked...like this they wouldn't have bled anything at all."

"You get an A for excellence." Henry nodded and grinned at the young tech/intern. "When this was administered, the body was fresh. A heart attack victim that we had just received from the EMS. There was some question of whether or not his prescription drug dependency played a part in his death so we were going to analyze it for the insurance company."

"So what are you getting at? The lab was ransacked around 8 or 9 pm? You guys left when...around 8, right?" Jo frowned and moved closer to the body. She did not look at it except in a kind of sideways glance. Mercifully, Henry stepped between her and the corpse on the gurney.

"Lucas, check the records. Did we not receive Mr. Delmonico around 7:55 pm?"

Lucas grabbed a clipboard form the mess on the floor and shuffled through the erratic stack of papers clinging to the board as if for dear life. "Ummm...yes." He looked up at Henry with admiration. "Wow, you remembered the exact time! I'm impressed, well, even more so than I am every day." Lucas glanced at Nick and nodded. "He's Super M.E."

"7:55 pm. Almost 8 pm, when we close and everyone goes home. The suspect came in here, apparently after solving the code on the security system and chose the freshest corpse, possibly after reviewing the other ones, and used some kind of..tool...or syringe...to get the blood out. Notice," Henry said, picking up speed in his lecture, "That the gurney is tipped down so the head is lower than the rest of the body. This would enable the blood, without the aid of a beating heart, to flow as gravity intended and be tapped."

"Tapped?" Nick said. He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and frowned. "You mean someone...wanted the blood..to...what? Drink?"

"Halloween!" Lucas said excitedly.

"No, we don't know that." Jo put up her hand in an effort to stop the frivolity. "Whatever happened to this poor man was wrong. And we have a job to do to find it. Henry, perhaps you can call Drew back at Staten Island and explain our...circumstances and findings.."

"Yes, I will do that now. Although, Jo, I do need to check the coolers to see if we have any blood missing." Henry moved towards the office just in time to see Detective Hansen come striding in carrying a DVD.

"You might want to take a look at this." He plopped the DVD down on the edge of the nearest desk. "Downright weird. First they're there and then they're gone."

"Pop it in." Jo rested against a desk and waited as Mike Hansen used the DVD player from the office to show the video. "Let's see what we are up against."

"Strange." Mike shot her a glance and then adopted a similar pose beside her.

The DVD started and in clear and perfect images, the attentive crowd saw Henry, Lucas, Nick, and 3 other techs/ME's come out of the main door. Henry was wrapping his scarf around him while Nick was playing with his iPod and Lucas was chatting on his phone. It looked like a normal scene, especially after the maintenance man walked in and re set the security code.

"OK, watch now." Mike held up a hand and then pointed directly at the screen. "THIS."

To their amazement, the screen held an image of 2 darkly dressed men, or what they assumed to be men. The faces were lost in the shadows as they clung to the sides of the building. And in a page out of Bram Stoker, they both were wearing capes and what looked to be tuxedo shirts with bow ties.

"You have got to be kidding me." Jo let out a low whistle as one of the men pressed the buttons of the security box and the door opened. With one last look around, the 2 men entered. The time on the bottom of the film said 20:08.

"SO we were right about someone coming in and doing this. What's so special, Detective Hansen?" Henry asked.

"Wait. Watch and see." Mike directed their attention back to the screen. When the men exited, they stood still for just a moment, then looked up at the camera. The bigger one of the 2 reached up and waved his middle finger, then wrapped his cape around him. There was a flash of light and the next clear image indicated that they were gone. "Poof."

"Unreal." Lucas let out a low whistle. "They really ARE vampires."

"Oh I doubt that." Henry shook his head and reached for the phone. "Now then. Let me check the coolers and see what kind of damages, if any, we had.. In the meantime, Lucas, take a sample of Mr. Delmonico's blood and give it to Nick to analyse. Nick," Henry directed his attention towards the tall young man. "Check for anything unusual, well, besides the prescription drugs he was taking. We need to find the red flag."

"Right, Sir. ON it now." Nick began to hastily assemble a working space amidst the chaos, carefully avoiding a detective who was still dusting for prints.

"Henry?" Jo sidled up close to Henry and he breathed in her scent. Discreetly of course. Jo Martinez would hate to have anyone tell her she smelled good.

"Mmm?" He was dialing the ME's number.

"Tell me we don't have a crazy sicko on the loose."

"I can't tell you that, Jo." Henry looked her in the eyes and did not flinch, despite his wanting to reassure her.

'Oh crumbcakes." She looked down at her shoes and sighed, then brushed her hair out of her eyes. She walked over to Nick who was preparing a slide to put under the microscope. "You're new. How long out of school?"

"Oh, I'm still in school." he looked up at her and flushed. He was incredibly cute, she thought, and if she was 10 years younger and never married, she would definitely be interested. "I am taking Pre Med and Biology with a concentration in Forensic Sciences at NYU. This is kind of my job and my internship. And there is no one better than Dr. Morgan."

"You'll definitely learn a lot." She smiled at him and let him get back to work. Henry was still talking to Drew, the SI ME, and she was left with some time so she decided to watch the tape again.

The images of the cape wrapping and the flash puzzled her. It was almost like an old time movie and their, what, escape? for lack of a better word, was showy if not bizarre. Of course, one could have dropped a smoke or flash bomb and then skedaddled out of there under the cover of the smoke. And that was likely it. But why the blood? And how much did they take?

"Nicholas?" She said, using his full name to attract his attention.

"Mmmm?" he looked up just as a strand of curly hair fell from behind his ear into his face. He pointedly shoved it back where it had been.

"Can you tell just how much blood was drained out of those incisions?"

"Well...probably not until...the corpse is...embalmed. When the tube is inserted, the blood runs out so the mortician can prepare the body with the-" He stopped when he saw her grimace at the thought. "Um, we won't know really."

"But the size of the holes, they aren't big."

"No, but the area around them is quite depressed and almost desiccated like a...a spider would do to its dinner."

"Spiders and dead bodies." She shuddered. "It really IS Halloween."

"I apologise for the gruesome imagery. It's just odd that someone would drain the blood out of a recently deceased person. You know, there's EMOS for that kind of thing." He glanced over at Henry who was still on the phone.

"EMOS? COme again?" Jo tilted her head and took out her little notebook that she always carried.

You know, like EMO people. I don't know what it stands for but it means either music or a kind of people who are really kind of morose and down and just sad and like depressing things. Shoe gazers, that's what they used to be called in Great Britain. And for real, there are a lot of those kinds of kids on campus. I saw an ad in the cafeteria, you know, one of those posters where you can tear the bottom off and have a phone number if you're interested."

"Yes, I remember finding my first dogsitting job that way when I was putting myself through the academy. Go on." She perched beside him. He really did have the loveliest shade of blue eyes.

"I just looked at it but the poster said something like getting paid for being cut and having some blood drawn from you. It said that all cuttings were sterile and were done in a clean environment."

"Yes but why EMOS?"

"Well, I think you should know that most EMO's are also into cutting. Cutting themselves and getting attention that way. So it would appear to serve 2 purposes."

Suddenly Henry was beside them. He looked interested, with an expression akin to that of examining a bug under a headlight.

"Seriously, Nick, can you show the detective that particular poster? Maybe it will give us a lead on who did something like this."

"Yeah, I mean, sure. Um, checking out the blood ...it does not show any abnormalities, other than a high concentration of Warafin and Oxicotin."

"Good work."  To Jo, Henry began to rattle off how many bags of blood were tampered with. "I found  2 bags completely cut open with most of the contents drained. And there was another one that was simply discarded although that one was flagged for contagions. I need to call Drew before we go." Henry whirled around and spotted Lucas who was trying to clean up the lab area. "Lucas!"

"Yo, Boss?" Lucas looked up and raised his eyebrows.

"You're in charge. When the police are done here checking leads get some help from maintenance and get this place straightened out."

"And where uh are you going and shouldn't Nicholas stay here?" Under his breath he muttered about Nick being low man on the totem pole.

"I heard that." Lucas' face brightened but he didn't say anything. He merely stepped out of the way so Jo, Henry, and Nick could head towards the exit. "Do a good job and I might be persuaded to go to that NY Rangers game with you."

"Ohhhh...ok, ...." and then under his breath, he muttered "Hank."

"HENRY!"

Lucas shook his head. The man had supersonic hearing.

 

"Come on, you 2. We'll take a squad car." Jo headed up to the desk in her office with Nick and Henry trailing behind.  The 3 had waited for Henry so he could call Drew and give him the lowdown on what Henry had found there, and now they were waiting for her to sign out a car to use to go to the university.

Jo was just about to leave after grabbing her purse and when her phone rang. She went to slide the bar to answer it and stopped, frowning. Henry stepped forward and waited anxiously, wondering why she looked the way she looked. Jo raised her head and her eyes were dancing. "It's for you, Dr. Morgan."

"Me? Calling for me on your phone?"

"Yes." She shoved the mobile into his hand. "Take it!"

"Oh..." Henry reluctantly put it up to his ear and cleared his throat. He was about to say something when the voice on the other end had him exhaling, not really aware that he was holding his breath. "Abraham."

Jo giggled and dragged Nick out towards the lift. "Who is that?" Nick asked her.

"It's his friend and housemate, Abe. I wonder what Henry will tell him. He was at the store and wondered how many bags of candy he should buy."

They paused as they heard Henry say that he did not think any candy was necessary because really, who was going to Trick Or Treat in Brooklyn, in a city and on their block. Then he squawked "20??" very indignantly and it was then that Jo laughed out loud. Such a solid fuddy duddy was Henry. And who could be more endearing than him right now?

Henry joined them. He was clearly annoyed and yet his annoyance was wrapped in fondness as well. Nick cleared his throat as they waited for the lift and then chanced a sideways look at his boss.

"If you don't give candy out, they might soap your windows or worse yet, tp your house."

"Where once Halloween was a truly religious and pious occasion, it is now overrun by traditions that are expensive, foolish, and ridiculous. 20 bags of candy. Why that's insane!"

"Candy or mayhem?" Jo asked calmly. She resisted the urge to laugh and instead held the door so Henry and Nick could get into the lift.

"Neither thank you. I plan on spending Halloween safely wrapped up in my robe, reading the paper and watching Jeopardy."

"Oh Henry. Loosen up a little." Jo nudged him with her elbow and then actually did laugh then.

"What?" Henry asked.

"Dr. Morgan. You may spend Halloween eve in your pajamas but come sun up you'll be out there with a ladder removing the Charmin."

"Oh for...."Henry censored his thoughts and stayed quiet as Jo brought the car around. His mind went back to the puncture marks on the corpse and the subsequent disappearance of the 2 wanna be vampires. This was going to be a very interesting case.


	3. Something Brewing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry stews about the Halloween candy. Nicholas takes Jo and Henry on a tour of NYU food hall. Abe checks out the Halloween costumes and considers having a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is such great fun!

"Where we going, Nick?" Jo turned around in the driver's seat of the Mercury Milan she was waiting to drive. It was new but not necessarily fit for 3 people, one of whom was a long legged slender Uni student who had to keep his legs tucked close to his chest as he sat sideways on the back seat.

"West 4th Street in the Village. We need to go to Kimmel. It's a cafeteria that's--"

"On the west side of the complexes." Henry finished. Jo shot him a look but he was staring out the window of the car, and his answer was soft, barely above a whisper.

"Ok." Jo nodded more to herself and pulled out of the parking garage at the base of the building. She joined traffic smoothly and was relieved that it was past the morning rush hour but still, it was plenty busy. "Henry? If we find the poster that Nick saw, do you think it will lead us to these people who are sucking down your blood bags as if they were Mickey D's milkshakes?"

Henry chuckled and looked askance at Jo. He was amused by her portrayal of the perps as some kind of fast food aficionados. "I imagine that we will at least get a good enough lead to build on."

"The very thought..the very act of drinking blood is pretty gross, especially since you really don't know what's exactly in a person's blood. Could be some kind of infection. Or even HIV. Or Hep." Nick sighed. He played with the end of one long strand of curly hair, wrapping it around his fingertip then letting it go absently.

"Exactly, Nicholas. Except you said that these kinds of things..these EMOS and the like are pretty popular on campuses." Henry swiveled around in his seat and started to gesticulate. "IF we can find these people who posted the ads...and track down some of their other activities...maybe we can prove that one or 2 of them were at the ME office last night. And the one in Staten Island that same night. I am not sure what morbid kicks they get out of drinking blood. Oh, I've read the reasons why people actually drink blood, from following a sect to wanting to improve their health. None of it is worth the risk of course, and in fact, it is not generally accepted as mainstream. More like a taboo kick."

"Henry, you're...you're lecturing." Jo interrupted gently. She patted his leg gently, then suddenly stomped on the brakes and cursed out loud. Nick hid his grin by ducking his head. Henry just cocked an eyebrow. "Sorry. I...I just forgot that I wasn't alone in the car.  Now then." She cleared her throat. "Finding these guys who drink blood. And then taking them in for questioning. I'm so looking forward to this."

"Can I use your cuffs to, ya know, cuff 'em?" Nick asked, leaning forward. "I used to watch COPS when I was a little kid."

"You're STILL a little kid," Henry murmured. He shifted in his seat and closed his eyes for a few minutes. Halloweens of years past were spent with him trying to make some kind of a costume for Abraham. Back in the Fifties, things had been so much simpler and he and Abigail tried to create costumes for their son rather than buy the ones on the hangers at Woolworth's. One year, Abe had gone as a tv set (black and white of course). Another year he had been a dragon, his tail and body of the costume sewn by Abigail herself. He had won first prize back in the day. A much simpler time indeed.

"Henry? We're here." Jo touched Henry on the shoulder and the M.E. jumped, memories dissipated.

"Of course. I was just...trying to consider our options." Henry climbed out of the sedan and watched as Nick also got out, his slender form straightening as he stood. There was a big hall in front of them, with 2 sets of steps leading to the double glass doors. Students were everywhere--leaning on the rails, laying on the steps, and milling about with their various backpacks and bags. With a  stab of nostalgia, Henry remembered Abe's first day at school. He had tried to walk his son to school at the beginning of the day but Abe would have none of that.  Stubborn, even then!

"Tell you what," Jo was unclipping her badge from her belt, looking for a place to conceal it. "I'll go in with Nick and sort of look around while he finds that sign for us. You can people-watch; you never know what you might see."

"Good idea, I think I would very obviously not fit in." Henry tried to hide an actual grin when he saw the look on Nick's face. Most likely he was thinking something along the lines of being seen with an attractive woman. He watched them stroll off and then settled back to observe.  There was nothing like a university campus and watching young adults setting out on their first true bid for independence.

Jo and Nick had been gone for about ten minutes when Henry's eyes were drawn three figures that stood out starkly in comparison to everyone else.  They had spurned jeans and hoodies for capes, real capes complete with red linings.  The red was the only bit of color to break up their otherwise black-on-black outfits.  The two men had daggers affixed to their belts, plus Henry could see hilts sticking out of the top of their ankle-high boots. The woman wore modern leggings with knee-high boots, and Henry could see knife hilts protruding from the tops of both.  What riveted Henry's eyes on them was the fact that they were sharing a snack--a blood collection bag which was mostly empty!

Bolting from the car, Henry yelled loudly at the trio. "Hey! Hello! Excuse me! Where did you..." Taking one look at Henry as he approached, the trio raced away, dropping the almost-empty bag on the ground. Not stopping, Henry ran after them, but they had the advantage of knowing the campus and they managed to ellude him, no doubt sneaking into some unlocked side door.  Henry looked up and down the sidewalk he'd been following, and tried a door that the sidewalk was close to. Locked, marked as an emergency exit. He stepped back onto the sidewalk and headed around the curve to a grassy area. Another building on the other side of the grass, but the grass looked undisturbed, not walked on uet that day. Still, he trotted to the building, realizing it was the rear of the building because of the dumpster sitting on the small, deserted parking area.  Nothing in the dumpster, and again, the door he checked was tightly locked.

Giving up his search, he headed back the way he'd come and heard his name as he approached Jo's car. "Henry, where have you been? We were looking for you!" Jo sounded slightly exasperated.

"Ah, yes, sorry! I was attemtping to chase down three vampires!"

 

  
 

 


	4. People Are Strange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They looked like vampires, were dressed like vampires, and just vanished so....

"Vampires, Doc?"

"Henry, vampires?"

"Well...yes.  There were two men and a woman, all in black, with red-lined capes and do you happen to have an evidence bag with you, by any chance, Detective?" Henry's eyes were still canvassing the area around them, and if he heard the disbelief in their previous comments, he didn't let on.  "They dropped something I wish to collect to examine."

"Actually yes, in the glove compartment..." Jo ducked her head into the car to retrieve the desired item.

"Doc, you said vampires." Lucas cast a nervous glance around the area. "Why exactly, I mean, did they bare their teeth or..."

"No, actually they just seemed to...vanish. Remember the security tape?" Henry accepted the proffered evidence bag and began walking back the way he had come.

"Vanished? Who vanished?" Jo began following Henry, one hand reached for her firearm, just in case.

"He said the vampires...errr, susepcted vampires, that is, vanished." Lucas fell in step beside her, still casting a worried look around him, and especially over his shoulder.

"Henry?"

Henry kept walking, eyes intent on the ground. "Yes, I know it sounds preposterous, and no, I did not actually witness them vanishing. I was chasing the three of them, they rounded the corner of a building and when I came around the corner not two or three seconds later, they were gone. Not a trace of them. No slamming doors; in fact all the doors I checked were locked.  The grassy areas were undisturbed, no boot prints in the dirt or the mud. They just seem to have vanished!"

"Interesting, I suppose but..."

"Yes, I know, they had the advantage, no doubt, of knowing the campus." He stopped walking abruptly, smiled at the ground before him and bent down.

"What are we looking for?"

Straightening, he held up his prize, carefully using a tissue to grip just a corner.  "Just this!" and he held up his trophy--a blood transfusion bag, with hints of dark red fluid still in it.

 

 Henry and Lucs leaned on the end of the gurney, eyes glued to the transfusion bag, which they had placed on ice.  Nicholas was nervously pacing back and forth behind them.  Checking the bag for fingerprints had turned up a few smudged ones, the best one of which Henry had determined, was a right thumb.  The computer was busy rendering the prints, which was taking some time due to the low quality.  Whatever came through, Henry had instructed Nicholas to print them off in varying sizes, to be turned over to the police.

"Holes." Lucas intoned. "I do see holes, 2.69 centimetres apart, so it falls right in the range..."

"Of the distance between the maxillary canine teeth of adults," Henry finished the sentence, sounding lost in his thoughts. "But what bothers me is how very fine the holes are, almost too fine to be..."

"That distance is the lower end of the range though for adult canines, could be the female suspected vampire did the biting..."

"...She'd still have to have had her canines ground to such a fine point..."

"Which they do in some cultures, Doc, I saw this thing on the NatGeo channel a few months ago..."

"NatGeo, what is NatGeo?" Henry broke off from staring at the bag to cast Lucas a curious look.

"Sorry, the National Geographic channel, on cable." Lucas shrugged and smiled. "They call it NatGeo to be cool."

A thoughtful look crossed Henry's face. "Of course, and I think Abe watched that same program, I remember talking to him about it. Human tooth sharpening is one of the earliest forms of body modification. The Wapare tribe of intertropical Africa sharpened their teeth to imitate sharks! And there are, or were, tribes in the Congo...but the methods they used were, or are, quite primitive. They filed, by hand, and that would not account for how very fine these holes are."

"So would a dentist agree to something like this? I mean...sheesh....something that sharp in your mouth, permanently?? That could do some damage to your lips and tongue!"  Lucas straightened up and folded his arms. "I mean, serious damage!"

Nicholas had been listening and cleared his throat as a sign he wanted to interrupt. "You know, Doctor Morgan, I've been thinking, and well, it is possible you saw some of the emos.  There's a bunch of them on campus."

"Emos?"

"Yeah, it stands for something like emotional...emotional hardcore. Where I come from we call them shoegazers. Kind of an old term but it suits them." He shrugged. "I mean, I know some of these terms refer to music but the people have a certain look..."

"Are they in to body modification, like having their teeth filed?"

Nicholas looked uncomfortable, almost squirming under Henry's sharp gaze and direct questioning. "OK, I sometimes see them in the food court really late at night. There's ten of them, and some of them do wear capes like you described, and..." He stopped, and raised his hands towards his face.

"Yes, and?"

"This is going to sound really weird but a couple of the chicks had...like...dental things, what do they call them....bridges? Ummm...flappers! They had really sharp, really long canines when they had those things in." The younger man flushed under Henry's careful scrutiny. "And there's one other thing that's kind of interesting," he continued hesitantly. "They ummm....they call themselves the Vladasses."

Lucas grinned. "I get it, like bad asses!"

Henry nodded, "Yes, and also a play on Vlad Tepes, more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler, thought to be the original Dracula. Do you know any of the members? Do you know anything about them?"

"Sorry, no, everybody I know steers clear of them but....well, one night when I was studying in the library I got an anonymous IM trying to recruit me to join them.  I just ignored it."

"That's interesting...."

"Uh, Doc, sorry to interrupt," Lucas tapped on the metal gurney to get their attention. "Now I've worked with alot of blood samples before but I do not think I have ever seen one do this. It's like....I dunno...congealing really weird."

Henry spun around and lasered his attention on to the transfusion bag.  A frown creased his brow as he bent to examine it, then he picked up a small glass rod to poke and prod at the bag and the area where the contents was indeed congealing.  Bending closer, he sniffed a few times, then he picked it up with one gloved hand and squeezed some of the contents onto a finger and tasted it.

"Whoa, hey, Doc!!" Lucas practically lunged across the gurney to grip his arm.

"We don't need to bother typing this sample; I can tell you what it is right now."

"You're good, but you are NOT that good and besides, that was just so against lab..."

"It's black cherry jello, with a faint hint of a chocolate syrup, no doubt to add color."  Henry threw the bag back into the bowl and peeled of his nitrile gloves.  "It's fake. The Vladasses were basically sharing a bag of dessert!"

 

"...so then my buddy, who had just said we were in the zone for getting a foul ball knocks his beer over...." Lucas was babbling, spinning in his chair, and downing a McDonalds egg mcmuffin.

"Hmmm." In his office, Henry was sorting through papers, setting aside ones he still needed to sign.

"Are you listening, Doc, cuz this is funny!"

"Mmm, yes...your buddy knocked over his beer."

"Wow, be still my heart, Hank is listening to me!"

"Excuse me?"

"Doc! Doc is listening to me...oh good morning Detective!!"

Jo came striding in, a sheath of papers and a folder in her grip, her expression serious.  "Henry, good job on the prints from that blood bag."

"Jello," Lucas intoned.

"It...what?!" She stopped mid-stride and gaped at Lucas as he popped the last of his mcmuffin into his mouth.

"Good morning, detective, might I offer you some coffee?" Henry hurried out to greet her, pulling on his lab coat.

"What did he just say about jello?"

"The blood transfusion bag contained a mixture of black cherry jello with a trace of cheap chocolate syrup, probably for the color. It was not blood, it was essentially three emos sharing their odd version of dessert."

"Emos, really. Well, that makes a slight bit of sense actually if one of them is a Thomas Kevin Millar. Those prints you managed to loft off of that bag matched his. Juvie record--graffiti, trespassing, and possessing drug paraphernalia. Spent some time in the juvie system. Hanson's tracking  him down, bring him in for questioning." 

"You know about emos?"

"Yeah, Nicholas was just telling us about them yesterday, they call themselves the Vladasses! Sure you don't want coffee?" Lucas was up and on the move.

"Vladasses? What's a Vladass? Sounds like a bad joke!"  The door to the morgue hissed shut behind Abe, who was carrying several plastic bags.

"Abe, what are you doing here?"  Henry sounded a bit impatient.

"Just stopping by to tell you I got the Halloween candy for Friday, so don't worry about it!"

"I wasn't going to!" Henry shoved his hands into the pockets of his lab coat.  Behind him he could hear Lucas and Nicholas, who had also just arrived, filling Jo in on the details of the jello bag and the emos who called themselves the Vladasses.

Abe's attention shifted from Henry to the trio behind him. "Vampires? Are you talking about vampires?" He side-stepped Henry then and joined the others, ignoring an exasperated sound that had escaped Henry's lips. "Hey, I always listen to this radio show, well it's a podcast now and, OK, the guy is a little bit of a hippie or something..."

"He means the Natural Gas Hour, hosted by some guy named Beemus, and he just likes to hear himself talk!" Henry chimed in.

"Yeah, yeah, Beemus. Look, he has traveled the world, the guy is a genius--ok, eccentric but a genius. He was talking about this case in Chile--real life vampires! They used fanged prostheses to make it look like bite marks on their victims. Real epidemic for a while, some people almost died. What did he call them? Cows...living blood donors!"

"Abe, really..."

"No, Henry, let him talk," Jo put a restraining hand of Henry's arm. "How did they catch these people?"

"Oh well, that's just it, Detective!" Abe got even more animated. "They had a real epidemic of attacks, and then they just stopped. They never did catch the people responsible!"

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
